WRESTLEMANIA BABY WOOOO

Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins

Awesome Brock beatdown to start it off, with him throwing Rollins viciously all over the place. Then Rollins takes over w/ the low blow & Curb Stomp x3, 123. Very funky booking, but I enjoyed it a lot. Sure it could've been a "normal" lengthier match like Brock's recent outing vs. Bálor for an example, but this one worked too. Especially as the opener. ***1/4

AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton

This was very underwhelming. There was practically no heat to it whatsoever, and that is apparently thanks to the lights situation, as some of the crowd couldn't see them properly, but yeah, even then they could've had a much more interesting match. I did like AJ's Phenomenal Forearm fakeout + there was some solid leg psychology in the thing, but overall it was just very soulless & dull for the most part. **1/4

Aleister Black & Ricochet vs. Rusev & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. The Bar vs. The Usos

This was very fun! They got about 10 minutes, and in those 10 minutes they had a very good get-your-shit-in bout w/ everybody getting time to shine. The highlight was the Cesaro vs. Ricochet exchanges; Cesaro is such an incredible base for Ricochet's incredible athletic flippy stuff. ***1/2

Shane McMahon vs. The Miz

This was really good. Might even be the best Shane McMahon singles match ever. Shane's heat segment that started off the match was awesome - loved the cat & mouse game that he played, which lead into that said heat segment, and as he keeps on punching Miz with those ridiculous strikes of his, he comes off as such a massive dickhead. The showdown between him & Miz's dad was a perfect segue into Miz's comeback; Miz came back into the thing with a house of fire, and the match quickly spills outside, playing awesomely into the Falls Count Anywhere gimmick. Loved the whole finishing stretch which was just Miz kicking Shane's ass all over the place, until they found their way into that structure where Miz suplex'd Shane from. Loved the finish as well - thought it was pretty much perfect given the character Shane portrayed in the match & in the lead up. AWESOME match. ***1/2

Beth Phoenix & Natalya vs. Nia Jax & Tamina vs. The Boss N' Hug Connection vs. The IIconics

This was just absolutely a nothing match. At least it was nice seeing Bret & hearing his music as Beth & Natalya walked out. *

Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston

I actually had to watch this two times back to back right away, because of how great it was. It's no secret that Daniel Bryan is my favorite wrestler & I truly think that he is the greatest to ever do it - I sure have seen A LOT of his matches, and I feel pretty confident in saying that this easily was one of his greatest performances, maybe even THE greatest. Man, I have loved the whole story they have been telling with Bryan's heel run & Kofi catching that lightning in bottle w/ his crowd reactions - I loved that "...and you should be (scared), because you know what comes next!" line from their contract signing, and the hype video played that line up perfectly. Another thing that stuck to me as the bell rang was the look on Bryan's face - he had a smug, cocky smile on his face, as the whole crowd chants for Kofi. It's the exact same situation that was going in the beginning of Bryan vs. HHH from WM30, but now with Bryan as the bad guy. Just a cool little touch I thought. The match starts & Kofi gets a very good shine to start it off - Bryan does some nice work on the mat & tries to punish him, but Kofi has all the momentum in the world so he is on fire. THEN he hits the announce table, ribs first as he tries to do a diving attack to Bryan on the outside. That's when Bryan's punishment segment starts, and it's just oh so wonderful; he is LASER FOCUSED on attacking that mid-section that Kofi just hurt w/ the dive - he goes to it with kicks, knees, holds, you name it. The whole Bryan control segment is just unbelievably amazing, and the little teases of a Kofi rally are awesome - loved the elbows he delivered w/ the crowd chanting YES with each one of them. Bryan cutting off those comeback attempts is of course awesome as well, and one of the highlights of the entire match was him countering Kofi's double stomp attempt into a Boston Crab. He put that hold in DEEP & Kofi sold his ass off in it. Continuing the fantastic mid-section psychology, I really loved that during the yay-boo striking exchange, Bryan won it by going after the stomach w/ a flurry of punches. A yet ANOTHER amazing mid-section psychology moment was him delivering some elbows to Kofi's ribs to keep the LeBell Lock locked in. So simple, but so terrific!
Another thing that was outstanding about Bryan's performance was his facial expressions & playing of the crowd - that sarcastic YES chant as he was getting ready to hit the knee was amazing, and his facial expressions during the final LeBell Lock were astonishingly good; first he is cocky as shit, with a real bastard smile on his face, but then as Kofi refuses to die, it goes to desperation real quickly. It could've been really cheesy done by some other top wrestlers of top promotions (shout out to Gargano & Omega ), but Bryan is a master of facial selling, he knows exactly how much he should emote to sell the thing & he never goes too far with it to make it embarrassing - in my eyes anyways.
 Overall, what can I even say? This was a masterful display of professional wrestling by the greatest who has ever done it. I don't want to say it was a carryjob, as Kofi definitely brought the goods & his whole story + connection with the fans added a TON, but this really was Daniel Bryan's masterpiece through & through. Everything from his facial expressions, selling, perfect timing of the cutoffs, to his vicious attack on the mid-section -- EVERYTHING he did was just about perfect. One of the greatest single match performances ever anywhere by anyone.
It's gonna be real hard to top it as the MOTY, but I don't want to say it's impossible, because you never know what the goddamn GOAT has planned in his back pocket. *****

Rey Mysterio vs. Samoa Joe

This was actually my 2nd most awaited match of the night, so I am a little disappointed it ended up being a 1-minute bout, but I understand it. We'll get that real Joe vs. Rey singles bout one day! ....right? NR

Drew McIntyre vs. Roman Reigns

There was nothing wrong with this, but it was a complete RAW match, pretty much. McIntyre dominates for the most part & Reigns makes some comebacks & wins. **

Batista vs. Triple H

The beginning was very fun with Triple H randomly turning into a CZW wrestler by doing all kinds of nasty shit like destroying Batista's fingers & ripping off his nosering, but then very quickly the match slows down big time & it's just your boring, generic Haitch-having-to-go-30-mins-at-Mania stuff. Not good, but mad props to Batista for going all out in his last match. *

Baron Corbin vs. Kurt Angle

Baron Corbin definitely isn't the ideal guy for Angle to put over on his way out, but it is what it is. The match was pretty much nothing, but the moment was far more important in this one; got legit pretty emotional as Angle walked out. It was good seeing him go out at the biggest wrestling show in the world after all the problems & struggles he faced all those years ago. *3/4

Bobby Lashley vs. Finn Bálor

Bálor's demon act is super cringe, and I definitely didn't care or enjoy watching him dominate Lashley. Bobby did have a few awesomely explosive bursts of offense though. *1/2

Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey

LOVED the special entrances - especially that helicopter entrance for Flair. Sadly the actual match was pretty underwhelming; some awesome moments like "you chop like a bitch!", but overall I thought the flow & energy was missing, even though Ronda did bring good intensity to the thing. The finish was pretty bad too, especially considering it was the damn main event of WrestleMania. **